Online Public Relations Thoughts

Daily entries on Public Relations and communications ideas and trends

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Apology

This is a candid apology from Netflix to its customers. When Netflix announced its change to separate streaming and DVD-delivery services, I wrote then that it was engaged in a risky experiment. The experiment didn't go well. So, the CEO of Netflix is trying again to explain what the company is doing. The change in name of the DVD service to "Qwikster" is interesting. It is clear that Netflix would prefer the DVD-delivery service to disappear, the sooner the better. The company earns far more revenue from streaming. How will customers take the renaming? A guess is that they won't like it but they will tolerate the change. Customers are still steamed but more about pricing than the name. It is good that the CEO acknowledged the company's public relations efforts were short-sighted.

From an objective perspective, what Netflix is doing is smart. It knows the DVD-delivery service has a limited life-span, and if it doesn't change with technology, Netflix will become obsolescent. Now if it can only get its customers to understand that.